Kevin Drew - Darlings

Kevin Drew
Darlings
18 March 2014
Arts & Crafts

3.5 stars out of 5

 

Darlings is the second solo LP by Broken Social Scene founding member Kevin Drew. In case you’ve been living somewhere without internet, radio, television, or smoke signals for the last fifteen years, Broken Social Scene is a Toronto-based band that includes every known Canadian musician in existence among its members, including Feist, Emily Haines, Amy Millan, Avril Lavigne, Gordon Lightfoot, Leonard Cohen, Celine Dion, Robbie Robertson, Paul Anka, and, of course, Peaches. Because Darlings is a solo record, it includes guest appearances from only thirty-eight other BSS members. Hahahahahaha jk! It really is basically just Kevin Drew, with minimal participation from other musicians. As a result, it sounds far less cluttered than, say, Broken Social Scene did. Drew’s songs have space to breathe here instead of being overwhelmed by infinite layers of redundant instrumentation. Several songs have that trademark BSS feel to them: “Bullshit Ballad” and “You Gotta Feel It” are prime examples, full of repetitive guitar riffs that subtly shift and slither, intensity built through overdubs upon overdubs of ecstatic vocals, and Drew’s simultaneously warm and alien-like singing.

“Body Butter” and “Good Sex” show off Drew’s sense of humour and set the lyrical theme for the record. “Mexican After Show Party” could be from an alternate universe BSS, one that was formed in the middle of the 1980s and featured members of The Parachute Club, Men Without Hats, and Platinum Blonde. “You in Your Were” reaches that trance-like place where BSS often end up in their music, a place where apotheotic [not a real word, but I don’t care] repetition and unselfish, restrained jamming creates a very acceptable substitute for psychedelic drugs. The keyboard-centered “And That’s All I Know” rounds things out with equal doses of delicate forgiveness and delicious regret.

Darlings contains some solid songs but in the end it doesn’t satisfy quite as much as the main touchstones in the Broken Social Scene canon, namely You Forgot It in People and their eponymous third LP. Perhaps there is some magic in the mayhem and the clutter of those works after all, or perhaps these new songs just aren’t as strong as the older material. Regardless, Darlings is worth a listen or five, but likely won’t make it into your long-term regular rotation.

reviewed by Richard Krueger